CITY OF Charlie Hales, MayorAmanda Fritz, Commissioner

Nick Fish, Commissioner^ V^rVJLO-V^l^l Dan Saltzman, Commissioner

Steve Novick, Commissioner

Mary Hull Caballero, Auditor

November 3, 2016

Honorable District Judge Michael H. SimonMark 0. Hatfield United States CourthouseCourtroom 13B

1000 Southwest Third AvenuePortland, OR 97204-2944

Re: United States u. City of Portland, 3:12-cv-02265-SI

Dear Judge Simon:

We, the Mayor, Council, and Auditor elected by the people of the City ofPortland write to express our unanimous condemnation of the behavior permitted to

occur at the status conference held on October 25, 2016. Your Honor invited and

permitted members of the public to subject the City's former COAB Chair, lawyersand officials to racist, sexist, and other ad hominem attacks during a court

proceeding. That abuse included references to "up-skirting" a female attorney and

telling another attorney, a Black Haitian-American woman, to "go back to Haiti/51

Your Honor also affirmatively invited a party adverse to the City in another case

before this court to speak, despite the fact that he had no connection to the subject

matter of the status conference. All of these circumstances raise concerns of

partiality and the City's ability to receive fair treatment from this court.

Some of the abuse directed at Deputy City Attorney Judy Prosper was

accompanied by shouts of "that's enough" from the audience, but your Honor

allowed the slurs against her based on national origin to proceed without

interruption or admonishment. This represented a failure to maintain order and

decorum in a courtroom and we believe contravened expected standards of judicial

conduct. See Canon 3.A(3) of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.

The City has always been and remains committed to the Settlement

Agreement with the United States and to improving the performance of and trust in

its Police Bureau. Its progress toward doing so, however, is delayed and frustrated

when City employees and officials have to subject themselves to the sort of ad

hominem diatribes that are unacceptable in any setting, let alone a United States

1 We do not yet have access to a transcript or recording of the proceedmgs and are accordingly relying on thecollective memory of those m attendance as to what was said.

Exhibit A Declaration of Tracy Reeve

Case 3:12-cv-02265-SI Document 139-1 Filed 11/03/16 Page 1 of 2

District Court. We commend our attorneys and employees who sat stoically through

that verbal abuse. As elected officials, it is our duty to stand up for them when they

are exposed to such unacceptable behavior.

Respectfully yours,

^c ^7larHe Hales

Mayor

^Amanda Fritz

Commissioner

Nick FishCommissioner

Dan Saltzman

Commissioner

. .'- / -

Steve Novick

Commissioner

Mary Hull CaballeroAuditor

ec: Bill J. Williams, United States Attorney's OfficeJanice E. Hebert, United States Attorney's OfficeAdrian L. Brown, United States Attorney's Office

Jared Hager, United States Attorney's OfficeLaura L. Coon, United States Department of Justice

R. Jonas Geissler, United States Department of JusticeBrian Buehler, United States Department of JusticeAnil Karia, Portland Police AssociationKristen A. Chambers, AMACShauna M. Curphey, AMACJessica Ashlee Albies, AMAC

Exhibit A Declaration of Tracy Reeve

Case 3:12-cv-02265-SI Document 139-1 Filed 11/03/16 Page 2 of 2